HostGator, founded in 2002, has long been in the hosting industry. With over 90% customer satisfaction and 12,000 servers under management, they are one of the largest and most well-known web hosts. The offer dedicated and VPS options for customers whose sites grow to require the extra power.

Mar 1, 2018

Category Ratings

Best Overall Rating

“HostGator has been around for over a decade and is well-respected for their large number of servers and their consistent reliability. Known mostly as a shared hosting provider, HostGator still supplies decent dedicated and VPS options if you need your site to scale.

HostGator costs a little more than some of the other budget-minded shared hosts, but that contributes to their reliability and well-known support. They offer decent features included in their basic offerings, unlimited disk space, a nice control panel, and free website templates. While the feature list is short compared to other hosts, you do get the flexibility to add them as you see fit.

Aimed primarily at the semi-technical user, HostGator's flexibility is their strong suit. Dedicated, VPS, and Windows hosting is available if that fits your needs. For those than need it, root access, SSH, and support for Ruby, Perl, Python, and other languages is available on all plans.

HostGator has nearly limitless options and control available for their server, however, they require a little more knowledge than beginner-focused web hosts. If you need to host multiple sites, their wide array of offerings make them a great choice.”

Cheap Rating

“HostGator is a great compromise between performance and price. They offer unlimited emails, MySQL databases, disk space, and bandwidth, plus 1-click installs of popular open-source projects, in addition to a 99.9% uptime guarantee on their shared hosting plans.

HostGator’s price-to-performance perks also apply to their vast array of other hosting options, such as VPS, dedicated servers, and even reseller hosting. Their many hosting options make them a great choice for sites on the rise, in need of options for the future.

For those just getting started and looking for a good, cheap host, HostGator bundles some nice features that hosting newbies can appreciate. A very nice site builder from Weebly is included. Their control panels are also very easy to use and a free domain is a nice touch.

If you are looking for a solid web host, with a ton of flexibility, plenty of power, and great price points, you should consider making HostGator your web host of choice.”

Dedicated Rating

“Founded in 2002, HostGator is one of the largest web hosts with a long lineage of dedicated server hosting. With updated hardware, including Intel Xeon Quad-core processors and a boatload of RAM, HostGator balances performance, quality of service, and competitive pricing.

As one of the few hosts to offer managed support and a Windows-based operating system, HostGator is an excellent fit for those seeking hassle-free ASP.NET support.

HostGator boasts a top-of-the-line, fully redundant network and datacenter, which dedicated hosting users should appreciate. The company also offers several unique IP addresses per dedicated server account.

Finally, HostGator has a fantastic support network and 24/7 customer service available via phone, chat, or email. Combining that support with plenty of power, HostGator is a very respectable choice for a dedicated server host.”

VPS Rating

“HostGator has built a great reputation in the industry for their shared hosting options. Their VPS solutions, with optional cPanel support, provide a nice and easy introduction to those that are new to VPS hosting and know their needs require more than a typical shared host.

Starting at low price points, HostGator makes transitioning to a VPS plan reasonable and doable. Each plan comes with two IPs and a bunch of storage, however, their CPU and RAM offerings could be better for their respective price tags.

HostGator’s strongest point comes from their state of the art datacenter. Featuring a fully redundant network with no single point of failure and multiple bandwidth providers, uptime should almost never be a concern.

Founded in 2002, HostGator is one of the largest online web hosts. They have more than 12,000 servers under management and award-winning support. If you are looking for a very small VPS server or value the strength of a great network, give HostGator a shot.”

WordPress Rating

“HostGator is great for all things shared hosting, and application-specific services — such as the classic one-click-install WordPress hosting — are no exception. The team recently updated its already clean and intuitive cPanel dashboard, wherein users can find a myriad of free apps and scripts to install, including WordPress. You could quite realistically have a WP-powered site up and running in as little as an afternoon.

As is the case with many of our favorite shared WordPress hosting providers, HostGator offers unlimited emails, databases, disk storage, and bandwidth. The one downfall is the lack of the popular free domain perk, but domain names are easy to obtain for around $10 to $15 bucks with any registrar. You can also select, register, and pay for a domain directly from the HostGator signup page.

If you're serious about your WordPress hosting, we recommend HostGator's new(er) managed WordPress platform, which is optimized for performance with cloud resources, multiple layers of caching tools, and a complimentary CDN. Managed WordPress plan subscribers enjoy up to 2.5x faster page load speeds for their website or blog. If you're running a business website, this is an excellent investment.

We wish you the best of luck in your blog or online business hosting endeavors. WordPress is a known favorite in the space, and HostGator has established itself as a trusted partner well worthy of your consideration.”

Ryan Frankel (HostingAdvice.com): This rating is not available yet.
We haven't evaluated HostGator for the "Website Builder" option yet as they do not currently offer this type of hosting service. We're always working to keep our reviews up-to-date so check back later!

Features

(4.6 / 5.0)

An Array of Hosting Options

HostGator offers shared, dedicated, and VPS hosting, as well as domain registration and reselling options.

The crux of HostGator's services is their shared server hosting; this is what they're known for excelling at in the industry. While focusing on the shared server segment of the market, HostGator has mastered what it takes to create a great customer experience, knowing the needs of the shared server client very well.

HostGator's understanding of the shared hosting user makes the team the ideal guide to lead customers into the virtual and dedicated server world as they outgrow the shared space over time.

Lots of Freebies

There are a lot of freebies that HostGator throws in with each hosting plan, including: unlimited disk and bandwidth, a free website builder and website building tools, over 4,000 website templates, free domain transfers, and unlimited mySQL databases.

Additionally, new site owners can call attention to their web property utilizing the $100-worth of Google Adwords credits, courtesy of the HostGator team.

In addition, there are 1-click installs available for all of the major open-source projects, such as WordPress, Joomla, and Magento.

Great Support and Guarantee

A 45-day money-back guarantee allows you ample time to try out HostGator and make sure that their hosting can serve your needs.

A 99.9% uptime guarantee is pretty standard for the web hosting industry and will cover most people's needs. If you need a higher uptime rate, you can find it, but it will cost you.

24/7/365 support is available via phone, chat, ticket system, and an online knowledge base.

Control Panels Galore

HostGator uses the latest cPanel software to power their administration consoles. You can get rolling quickly, including tasks like organizing and launching eCommerce shopping carts.

Using their backend panel, you can gather stats and logs using AWStats, Webalizer, Raw Log Manager, and Error Logs.

A web-based file manager will help you keep your server clean and free of junk.

Ease of Use

(4.4 / 5.0)

The HostGator Homepage

Strightforward Control Panel

Files, Logs, and Security Panels

With a quick provisioning system and clear icons, it is easy to get going with HostGator. I found the experience to be straightforward, and when I had questions, I could easily start a live chat to get them answered quickly.

Pricing

(4.3 / 5.0)

"Hatchling" Plan

"Baby" Plan

"Business" Plan

HostGator's pricing is in the middle of the road when it comes to shared and VPS hosting. Good customer service and live chats cost money, and most good beginner web hosts fall in this range. Save some money at checkout by using a HostGator coupon from a site like DealCrunch.com.

Reliability & Support

(5.0 / 5.0)

With a 99.9% uptime guarantee HostGator performs admirably when it comes to reliability. This level of service is the industry standard and while there are hosts with a higher uptime rate, they also have a higher cost. HostGator has been in the industry for a long time, so you can feel safely assured that they are not a scam and will be around for the long term.

HostGator Includes

Extensive Online Knowledge Base for Common Hosting Issues and 24/7/365 Live Support via Email, Phone, and Chat

Other Hosts vs. HostGator

Wondering how HostGator stacks up againt other web hosting services? See our host-vs-host reviews below and compare them side by side.

The Rundown

Ryan Frankel

Hosting Expert:

To recap, here's a rundown of what HostGator has to offer

HostGator is targeted toward beginners or those that are looking to host simple websites. They offer nice VPS and dedicated options to folks whose websites grow outgrow shared servers. Plus, HostGator's been around for over a decade and they have solid customer support available.

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